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'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

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Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#101
post #65

The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference Control (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called The Oldest House at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI It also very…

I am also going to call out House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's a really interesting book that explores a house that is slightly larger on the inside than the outside. It explores a lot of liminal spaces and has a really interesting format in print.

Report on an Unidentified Space Station by J G Ballard

https://sseh.uchicago.edu/doc/roauss.htm

And I think I read a short story about a guy buying a house with endless levels below it - maybe the free short stories on tor.com ?

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking of House of Leaves reading the other comments here, mostly because something like an infinitely long tunnel to nowhere hidden in the walls of your house would actually be scary to me, whereas normally occupied spaces being empty and long winding indoor hallways are far more mundane. My wife has gotten into backrooms lore quite a bit in the past few years and it's always struck me as a strange thing to…

When I was younger, I went into some places that I shouldn't have (legally). For myself, something scarier is walking through offices and tunnels that look completely deserted, and then coming upon an office or room where it's clear someone has recently been there. Whether it was someone homeless looking for a place to stay, or an employee that's still on the payroll, both would freak me out far more than a completel…

House of Leaves is meant to be read with the weird layout and coloring (e.g. the word "house" always in blue)

It's a fun book! I first read it as a kid at my grandparents little condo in Mexico. I read some on the plane there and back, but the most scared I got was when I read one particular scene alone at night in the kitchen when everyone was asleep. I think it's the only time my heart rate has ever truly jumped like that reading a book.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I too have worked in these environments. As mentioned in the article, and in numerous other references about the Backrooms - the creepiness stems partially from the "liminal" feeling of walking around large, man-made spaces that are totally empty. Think walking around a shopping mall after hours. I had several odd jobs before I was in college where I had to work overnight shifts, sweeping the floors of la…

I've worked in these environments too, and I think the modern "open" office without assigned desks give a far greater creepy "liminal" feeling that old suburban cube farms. When you have assigned desks, people personalize their spaces. It feels lived in (at least a bit). A more contemporary open office feels more liminal, even when it's full of people. And after hours it's even worse: there's no trace of human habita…

Like a Borg cube - if there's one thing more scary than a cube full of drones, it's one that's mysteriously empty.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#105
It reminds me of De Chirico and Pittura Metafisica which was a small art movement in Italy just before WWI.

I think that the backrooms are a kind of reaction to the total corporatization of american life. Just like how Pittura Metafisica was a reaction to the futurists. The futurists were obsessed with machines and going fast, their art was full of movement and metallic forms and so on. De Chirico's was the exact opposite, these ancient Greek statues and buildings standing totally still in a weird autumn light, with meaningful things (statues, grand columns, and so on) placed into meaningless landscapes often with perspective or lighting that was purposefully not correct.

I don't really know too much about De Chirico's rationale for making paintings like this but I suspect it had to do with the industrialization and loss of the old ways of life that he experienced and the rapidly changing social attitude of the time. He took these grand imperial symbols and symbols of modernity and made them feel alienating and unsettling. Of course we know what happened historically as a result of the futurists.

So I think this could be what the backrooms are, a purposeful choice to see this totalizing corporatization of everything as opposite of what it is typically portrayed: it is lifeless, dead, meaningless, non-unique. It's taking a form that is treated a certain way in society (the artifacts of corporate america) and totally inverting it.

Has a lot in common with Vaporwave, I really like it. Not a huge fan of the horror part of it although I guess that's artistically relevant, but moreso this feeling of alienation, sadness, disconnection. It's lurking beneath the surface of our daily life. Think of what working at the Meta campus might look like (bright, cheerful, sunny, aesthetically pleasing) and then think of how the app which is created by that work actually makes people feel (alienated, disconnected, sad, enraged). That's the metaphor, it's the contradiction.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's even meant to be scary. I think of the Backrooms as closer to the world of Piranesi, or the project that took a bunch of virtual-tours of apartments for rent, and aggregrated them all into a single mega-building.

The Backrooms and Skinamarink are both classified as horror.

The movies, sure, but the Backrooms as a concept (and by extension liminal spaces in general) are not necessarily horror.

I don't find them "scary" but I do find them disconcerting.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#107
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also going to call out House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's a really interesting book that explores a house that is slightly larger on the inside than the outside. It explores a lot of liminal spaces and has a really interesting format in print.

Report on an Unidentified Space Station by J G Ballard https://sseh.uchicago.edu/doc/roauss.htm And I think I read a short story about a guy buying a house with endless levels below it - maybe the free short stories on tor.com ?

Gregor Schneider made a super creepy house, called House Ur, it is a mega unsettling art piece. There are some videos on it but cant find them at the moment. Super creepy guy and super creepy layers in a house.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#108
post #55

The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference Control (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called The Oldest House at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI It also very…

I mean if we're trying to source where "liminal space" started, I'd like to add Portal and Portal 2 into the mix. It didn't have the surreal, creepy components because jump scare horror games like Five Nights hadn't been popularized yet but the entire second area of Portal 2 where you're introduced to Cave Johnson and the older Aperture Science HQ is very much "liminal". If we want to go deeper , then I really think…

Super studio’s Flooded McDonalds also comes to mind

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#109
post #8

I don’t really get the nostalgia angle as it seems as many of those who are into this kind of thing are too young to have ever been in such a space, let alone worked in one. I’ve worked in a place like this that was well past its prime and though uncanny, it’s certainly not creepy. The illusion of infinitely twisting, identical corridors simply doesn’t hold up when you’re actually in a space like this, but only works…

I absolutely grew up in the correct time period, and I've been in a ton of abandoned or not-currently-occupied 1970s decor structures, both day and night in my life. Malls, factories, office buildings, schools, churches, workshops, houses, barns, alleyways, warehouses, storage areas, the list goes on.

I have never been creeped out by these kinds of areas or vibes, instead finding them endlessly comforting and wicked fun to explore :D

I think one possible difference about how I view such an area vs the youth of today, is I think they view walls as "the boundaries of a video game map, so sturdy that gunfire and C4 can't even dent them, thus ineffable". But I had seen enough damaged and unfinished drywall and poorly constructed buildings in my youth to instead view the wall as another piece of furniture. Beyond it is something else, possibly "outside". I don't have to bust it down, but I built faith that if you walk around it you will arrive there all the same.

And as far as an environment constructed for humans: chairs, tables, doorways, but no humans present to occupy said environment, I just wind up personifying the furniture or imagining ways to use a space for which it might not have been originally intended. After all I explored these spaces since I was a child, you damn well know my first instinct is "climb up and over all of the things" and "establish a fort" and things like that! :D

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#110
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean if we're trying to source where "liminal space" started, I'd like to add Portal and Portal 2 into the mix. It didn't have the surreal, creepy components because jump scare horror games like Five Nights hadn't been popularized yet but the entire second area of Portal 2 where you're introduced to Cave Johnson and the older Aperture Science HQ is very much "liminal". If we want to go deeper , then I really think…

Antichamber (2013) is also worth mentioning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichamber

That game is so mind-bending
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